This Monday July 18th is a public holiday in Japan known as Umi no Hi, or “Ocean Day.” It’s one of 16 public holidays in Japan, which is quite a large number compared with many other countries (on the flip-side, few Japanese take annual leave from work for a variety of reasons). Fortunately for Neopagans living in Japan, not only do many of these public holidays fall on or close to the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, but several lend themselves to Pagan celebrations in their own right.
So let’s look at how Neopagans in Japan can work their Wheel of the Year around Japan’s own calendar…[Read more]

I think it was with some trepidation that myself and fellow members of Medway Inter Faith Action (MIFA), a local interfaith group associated the The Inter Faith Network for the UK, set out for our Walk for Peace on July 2nd. Although this walk, a procession to promote peace between people of all faiths and no faiths in Medway, had been carefully planned for many months, we still had many concerns. Would anyone turn up? What if it rained? What if some kind of accident happened on the way? And what if we got attacked by racists? [Read more]

This month we take a look at one of Ronald Hutton’s most recent books; an older book on Shinto shrines; one of Paulo Coelho’s more witchy works; and a brand-new release by one of Patheos Pagan’s own writers! [Read more]

Last month I attended a lecture and book reading by Nina Lyon, author of the new book Uprooted: On the Trail of the GreenMan (reviewed here).During the lecture, she described talking about her eclectic, liberal form of nature-based spirituality to a friend, who said, “Oh, it’s like a sort of punk religion!” [Read more]

It must be near Beltane – this month’s reviews include not one but two books about the Green Man! There’s also a look at the widely-anticipated Godless Paganism and my own thoughts on Lev Grossman’s The Magicians…[Read more]

Britain is full of strange archaeological sites steeped in unsolved mysteries – Stonehenge is perhaps our most famous. But one of my favourite curiosities, and one of the most mysterious of all, is located right on my doorstep in Kent: the Shell Grotto of Margate. Click here to read more!